Home > Consumer Reviews > LaCie Little Disk 320 GB FW 400 / USB 2.0 Hard Drive, design by Sam Hecht

I'm quite taken with the portability and size (320GB!) of this hard drive. I'm always on the go with work and need to bring all my files with me. I also love to have my media (including music, movies and TV shows) with me in case I want to watch or exchange with friends. Transfer speeds are above average and very solid. It's easy to plug in and get going with no hassle and you get a choice of a built in USB (VERY CONVENIENT) or firewire. It works flawlessly and quickly with my iTunes and streams great with my Apple TV. It's the best portable hard drive around.

This was one of the best purchases I have made in quite a while. The FireWire capability let me create a bootable backup disk for my Mac. This was not possible with only a USB type HD. And it doesn't require additional power. The FireWire port supplies all the power necessary. No software was required either to get up and running. And no kinks whatsoever.

So this was the perfect purchase for me.

Seeing as how all the reviews prior to mine are 4 and 5 stars, I must have had bad luck with the particular Little Disk that I bought less than a week ago.

I was very excited because of how small and beautiful it is. Everything transferred from my other external hard drive with no problem, the FireWire made it super fast, so far so good.

Then, the disk lost its connection with my Macbook because the FireWire cord is so short and the disk itself is so small; it slipped out of my hands by accident. I got the "device removal warning" and grimaced, but figured I would be okay. Nope. All of my LaCie data was corrupt and I had to repair the disk, erase everything, and re-transfer from my older external. From then, everything started working again.

Then two nights ago, I connected my year-old iPod to "erase and sync" with my new library (my Macbook is new too). After a few seconds, I got an error message saying that my iPod "could not be read from or written to." Since the "erase" had been done before the "sync," I now had an empty iPod that couldn't be written to (essentially, a paperweight). I restored my iPod twice and frantically searched Mac forums + support pages; I tried every one of the 10 to 20 solutions to fix possible reasons for this error. No luck.

Finally, this morning I took everything (iPod, Macbook, LaCie Little Disk) to the Genius Bar at Apple and we figured out eventually that it was the LaCie drive that was the problem (songs were transferred to my iPod with no problem from an Apple Store computer, and from my own Macbook's internal hard drive). Either the iPod (or iPod's software) wasn't compatible with the LaCie's (or its software); the USB connections weren't compatible (I tried both USB ports and FireWire on the LaCie), or something else.

Needless to say, I have to return this thing tomorrow (after backing my data up again) and buy a different drive (& start all over again). Not happy.

After doing a little research, I settled on the Lacie Little Disk because I wanted a drive with Firewire for my MacBook. I also own a LaCie 80GB mobile external hard drive designed by FA Porsche which has given me years of trouble free use but the capacity is on the low side by today's standards.

Portable hard drives nowadays are pretty generic when it comes to performance and capacity so I find the distinguishing features are the type of connectivity offered and product design. It's amazing how few Mac friendly portable hard drives there are in the market and even the ones which say they are for Mac have drawbacks. One case in point is Western Digital's My Passport Studio portable drive - it needs to be connected via a supplied hybrid Firewire/ USB cable. Lose it and you're stuffed. Sure you can use USB only portable drives but performance is not as good as Firewire.

The LaCie comes out on top here thanks to an integrated USB cable and not one but two Firewire ports. The second port is to provide a connection for additional power (cable supplied) but I have found that connecting the drive directly to my MacBook via Firewire works fine. I presume 2x FireWire also means it would be possible to daisy chain the drive which is another bonus.

Where I have deducted one star is the design. A glossy piano black plastic casing? What were LaCie and Sam Hecht thinking?! While I agree the design looks great, it is not very practical and the plastic case will get scratched and scuffed in no time - not good if like me you like to keep your stuff looking pristine. Finally, I am a bit disappointed that the footprint of the Little Disk is slightly larger than the older Porsche designed drive. I know they have a lower capacity model which is really small but I would have expected that they could keep this new range of high capacity portable drives the same size as the Porsche range.

Overall I am happy with my LaCie Little Disk and would recommend it especially to Mac owners who are looking for additional storage on the go.

This drive works perfectly with both the USB and the Firewire interface. I've taken it on many business trips to back up my notebook files, and it's always been ready and fast. The normal bumps and jostling it gets in my carry-on luggage never affects it at all. Its appearance is fine too--a nice stackable shiny black box. I've used it on my Windows XP machine and on my son's MacBook. Plug and play in both cases. Highly recommended!